Did everyone get up early to watch Meghan Markle’s wedding yesterday? If getting married in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle to a prince is not a fairy tale ending for an American girl, I don’t know what is. But, when I read a CNN article about what one of Meghan Markle’s mentors had mentioned about Meghan, I realized that Meghan was the real thing and that their union was meant to be. It was an interview of Maria Pollia, Meghan’s theology teacher at Immaculate Heart High School and Middle School in Los Angeles. Immaculate Heart High School and Middle School, by the way, has a slew of impressive graduates, including Lucie Arnaz, Tyra Banks, Mary Tyler Moore, and Yara Shahidi amongst many others. When Pollia first heard of Meghan’s engagement to Prince Harry, her reaction was genuine. She said, “He is so lucky!” Normally, one would expect the opposite, like: Oh, she’s so lucky!

Forget about all the negative trash that the tabloids want to spread, or the fact thatMeghan is an accomplished actress. Maria Pollia knows the real Meghan. Pollia felt thatPrince Harry was the lucky one because of Meghan’s sincerity and her unrelenting spirit topursue good. Pollia echoed what most remember of Meghan from school, that she was, “ayoung, curious, and deeply caring student who seemed mature beyond her years.” But,what Pollia revealed next was provocative. She isolated the one trait that distinguishedMeghan’s character, saying, “She was also a very unusually compassionate person, anddeveloped that compassion quite early in her life.” Pollia once spoke in class about how theCatholics cared for the marginalized as a way to reach out. Pollia then conveyed to the classthat she had volunteered at a soup kitchen on Skid Row, and described what she had seen,and with what she was confronted. After the class was over, Pollia was approached byMeghan who confided thus: “You know, when I was about thirteen, I volunteered at akitchen on Skid Row and I was really scared. But I really, really, really want to go back.How did you do it? How do you go there?” We know from an interview given by Meghanfor the book, The Game Changers: Success Secrets from Inspirational Women Changing theGame and Influencing the World, that Meghan had acted upon the advice given by MariaPollia that day, saying “I remember one of my mentors told me that ‘life is about puttingother’s needs above your own fears’” Meghan went on to say, “Yes, make sure you are safeand never, ever put yourself in a compromising situation, but once that is checked off thelist, I think it’s really important for us to remember that someone needs us, and that your actof giving/helping/doing can truly become an act of grace once you get out of your head.”Meghan took Pollia’s advice and immersed herself into the soup kitchen. She was there notonly to serve food but to meet and get to know the people. “She created relationships withthe people who were at the kitchen because she would come back,” according to Pollia.Meghan volunteered at the soup kitchen for her entire Junior and Senior year at ImmaculateHeart. Pollia said that, “She used to come back and talk to me and catch me up on how wasBetty, how was Joe, how was his dog. . . . (Meghan) knew everyone’s name. She kneweveryone’s story. And that is what gave her joy, is really connecting with people.”

Pollia also recalled how Meghan had once been offended by a Procter and Gamblecommercial about a dishwashing liquid that assumed that washing dishes and doinghousework was a task reserved for women. At the young age of eleven, Meghan wrote tothe company and convinced them to change the script in the commercial from, “women arefighting greasy pots and pans” to “people are fighting greasy pots and pans with Ivorycare”. With just one letter, Meghan managed to alter a company’s bias against women.Though this all happened before Meghan enrolled at Immaculate Heart, Pollia recalled thatMeghan spoke often about outreach and justice, but not once boasted about the monumentalchange that she had secured at a major corporation.

There is a reason why Prince Harry said that he knew Meghan was the one as soon as hemet her. Meghan’s sensitivity to those around her, empathy for their problems, and hersincerity in helping to solve their problems was glaring. This is compassion. Compassion,the one character that distinguished Meghan from others according to Ms. Pollia, happens tobe one of the most essential qualities embodied by the Buddha. In fact, our objective ofgaining enlightenment is consumed with how to enhance this essential quality. Compassionto the Buddha involves losing one’s preoccupation with oneself, and redirecting ourattention to those around us. In other words, compassion means to empathize with others,and then to harness our talents and energy to serve the community.

When one exudes compassion as Meghan does, invariably people notice it. MeghanMarkle is a beautiful woman, but her inner beauty was what caught Prince Harry’sattention. Meghan, who began polishing herself by helping at the soup kitchen, had alreadyestablished herself as a spokesperson for several charities such as Global Ambassador forWorld Vision long before she had met her prince. I believe that Meghan’s obvious passionto promote women’s equality, women’s suffrage, and the general betterment of woman allover the world was plainly visible by Prince Harry who himself spearheads charities such asthe Invictus Games to support wounded and injured armed services personnel. Realcompassion is something that people cannot deny. (Eisei Ikenaga)